Patients who die following rapid response team calls differ significantly from surviving peers. Recognition of these factors could improve postrapid response team triage decisions and prompt timely goals of care discussions.

Objective: To characterize the present state of brain death (BD) determination in actual practice relative to contemporary American Academy of Neurology (AAN) guidelines. Methods:We reviewed the charts of all adult (16 years and older) BD organ donors during 2011 from 68 heterogeneous hospitals in the Midwest United States. Data were collected across 5 categories: guideline performance, preclinical testing, clinical examination, apnea testing, and use of ancillary tests. Practice within categories and overall adherence to AAN guidelines were assessed.Results: Two hundred twenty-six BD organ donors were included. Practice exceeded recommendations in guideline performance but varied widely and deviated from AAN guidelines in all other categories. One hundred two (45.1%) had complete documentation of brainstem areflexia and absent motor response. One hundred sixty-six (73.5%) had completed apnea testing. Of the 60 without completed apnea testing, 56 (93.3%) had ancillary tests consistent with BD. Overall, 101 (44.7%) strictly and 84 (37.2%) loosely adhered to contemporary AAN guidelines.Conclusions: There is wide variability in the documentation of BD determination, likely reflecting similar variability in practice. This is a call for improved documentation, better uniformity of policies, and comprehensive and strategically targeted educational initiatives to ensure consistently contemporary approaches to BD determination in every patient. In 1981, the Uniform Determination of Death Act defined brain death (BD) as the "irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem" with the same legal and medical legitimacy as the traditional cardiopulmonary standard, but only asserted that the determination be made "in accordance with accepted medical standards."1 Time has led to expanding awareness and acceptance of BD worldwide.2 The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) published and revised practice parameters in 1995 and 2010, respectively. 3,4 It has been shown that official hospital policies for determining BD at top-rated neurology departments vary widely and often deviate from AAN guidelines in multiple domains of the process. 5 The absence of clear and uniform expectations could hypothetically predispose to misdiagnosis or, conversely, deter unfamiliar physicians from pursuing the diagnosis altogether. Furthermore, the variability in official policies may perpetuate confusion about BD, create ambivalence about the importance of BD determination, 6 and hinder the manner in which it is explained to grieving families.The lack of uniformity among institutional policies does not necessarily reflect variability in approaches to BD determination in practice. To date, there is no systematic study that has scrutinized approaches to BD determination in actual practice.Our study examined the approaches to BD determination in adults (16 years and older) at a cross-section of regional academic and nonacademic medical centers in the Midwestern United

DCIS patients who undergo preoperative breast MRI are far more likely to undergo additional biopsies. Unless these can be demonstrated to lead to improved long-term outcomes, the utility of routine preoperative MRI in DCIS patients remains questionable.

Best practice guidelines and quality metrics recommend immediate antibiotic treatment for all patients with suspected sepsis. However, little is known about how many patients given IV antibiotics in the emergency department are ultimately confirmed to have bacterial infection. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS:We performed a retrospective study of adult patients who presented to four Massachusetts emergency departments between June 2015 and June 2018 with suspected serious bacterial infection, defined as blood cultures drawn and broad-spectrum IV antibiotics administered. Structured medical record reviews were performed on a random sample of 300 cases to determine the post hoc likelihood of bacterial infection, categorized as definite, likely, unlikely, or definitely none. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Among the 300 patients with suspected serious bacterial infections, mean age was 68 years (sd 18), median hospital length of stay was 5 days (interquartile range, 3-8 d), 45 (15%) were admitted directly to ICU, and 14 (5%) died in hospital. Overall, 196 (65%) had definite (n = 115; 38%) or likely (n = 81; 27%) bacterial infection, whereas 104 (35%) were unlikely (n = 55; 18%) or definitely not infected (n = 49; 16%). Antibiotic treatment durations differed by likelihood of infection (median 15 days for definite, 9 for likely, 7 for unlikely, and 3 for definitely not infected). The most frequent post hoc diagnoses in patients with unlikely or definitely no bacterial infection included viral infections (28%), volume overload or cardiac disease (9%), drug effects (9%), and hypovolemia (7%). The likelihoods of infection were similar in the subset of 96 cases in whom emergency department providers explicitly documented possible or suspected sepsis and in the 45 patients admitted from the emergency department to the ICU. CONCLUSIONS:One third of patients empirically treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the emergency department are ultimately diagnosed with noninfectious or viral conditions. These findings underscore the difficulty diagnosing serious infections in the emergency department and have important implications for guidelines and quality measures that compel immediate empiric antibiotics for all patients with possible sepsis.

IMPORTANCE:The prevalence and causes of sepsis in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are poorly characterized. OBJECTIVES:To investigate the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of sepsis caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) versus other pathogens in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:Cross-sectional, retrospective chart review of 200 randomly selected patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at four Massachusetts hospitals between March 2020 and March 2021. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:The presence or absence of sepsis was determined per Sepsis-3 criteria (infection leading to an increase in Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score by ≥ 2 points above baseline). Sepsis episodes were assessed as caused by SARS-CoV-2, other pathogens, or both. Rates of organ dysfunction and in-hospital death were also assessed. RESULTS:Sepsis was present in 65 of 200 COVID-19 hospitalizations (32.5%), of which 46 of 65 sepsis episodes (70.8%) were due to SARS-CoV-2 alone, 17 of 65 (26.2%) were due to both SARS-CoV-2 and non-SARS-CoV-2 infections, and two of 65 (3.1%) were due to bacterial infection alone. SARS-CoV-2-related organ dysfunction in patients with sepsis occurred a median of 1 day after admission (interquartile range, 0-2 d) and most often presented as respiratory (93.7%), neurologic (46.0%), and/or renal (39.7%) dysfunctions. In-hospital death occurred in 28 of 200 COVID-19 hospitalizations (14.0%), including two of 135 patients without sepsis (1.5%), 16 of 46 patients with sepsis (34.8%) due to SARS-CoV-2 alone, and 10 of 17 patients with sepsis (58.8%) due to both SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial pathogens. CONCLUSIONS:Sepsis occurred in one in three patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and was primarily caused by SARS-CoV-2 itself, although bacterial infection also contributed in a quarter of sepsis cases. Mortality in COVID-19 patients with sepsis was high, especially in patients with mixed SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial sepsis. These findings affirm SARS-CoV-2 as an important cause of sepsis and highlight the need to improve surveillance, recognition, prevention, and treatment of both viral and bacterial sepsis in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.